


Jewels of the Night

by Bruteaous



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 01:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2410601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruteaous/pseuds/Bruteaous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things were different when Sara left Nanda Parbat for the last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jewels of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I claim no ownership of this story or any of its characters.

Things were different when Sara left Nanda Parbat for the last time.

 

For one, she knew she was leaving for good and also that she had to leave because she didn’t like how easy it was now for her to take the life of another human being without even flinching or feeling much of anything anymore aside from a hollow ache in her chest that only intensified which each passing day. And she didn’t want to be like that anymore—couldn’t be like that anymore. At first, she had wanted to confide in Nyssa about how she was feeling, but every time they were alone together Sara couldn’t bring herself to say anything about it because she knew while she wasn’t so happy with who she had become, Nyssa was happy with the status quo and she somehow couldn’t bring herself to outright destroy the absolute joy she and Sara had once shared in together.

 

After a few days she stopped trying and resigned herself to silence for however much she cared for Nyssa, Nyssa was the League. She embodied the League and everything it was and its eventual future perhaps even more so than her father as his heir. Telling Nyssa, however, would be the right thing to do—the fair thing—but Sara also knew that if she told Nyssa she was leaving that the other woman would never let her go.

 

Then the earthquake in Starling had happened and Sara knew that she had to go now.

 

She spent their last night together as she usually did—with Nyssa in the chamber they shared. They’d made love and it had somehow been more urgent, more passionate because Sara knew, she knew it would be the last time they would ever touch one another. Once the moon had risen, Sara disentangled herself from the soft comfort of her lover’s form and dressed quietly. She retrieved the bag she’d packed earlier in the evening and hidden in a chest. The doors to the balcony had been left open as they usually were at night to let in the cool mountain air and the moonlight. After everything had been gathered, Sara paused.

 

She’d been planning on leaving Nanda Parbat for a couple of months at least. The thought of leaving hadn’t bothered her before, but now that she was about to do it, she hesitated. Her entire life for the past five years had been in this secret city in the mountains. The person she was now had her origins here and it was painful to let them go.

 

 _This isn’t who I was meant to be_ , Sara thought ruefully, her gaze straying back over to the bed by the wall where Nyssa slept in peaceful darkness. _But it is who I am and my family needs me._

Sara reached into her bag and pulled out something. It was a small silver pin in the shape of a bird. She stared at it as it gleamed in the moonlight. Nyssa had given it to her the day she had been officially accepted into the League. Her injuries had still been fresh from the fight against her fellow initiates and then finally Al-Owal and when it was over and a healer was tending to her wounds, Nyssa came and gave her this small trinket that said so much more than words could.

 

“For you Ta-er-al-as-fer, for today you are truly one of us,” Nyssa had said with a warmth in her voice that had always only been reserved for Sara as she handed over the hand carved piece of jewelry.

 

Slowly, she crept her way back over to the bed and set the pin gently down on the end table beside where Nyssa was still sleeping. Sara closed her eyes and let out a deep breath that seemed incredibly loud in the still silence of the room. A tear slid down one cheek and she clutched the strap of the bag around her shoulder to harden her resolve.

 

“I’m sorry,” Sara whispered.

 

Then she turned and left the room and Nanda Parbat behind without a second glance.

 

* * *

 

 When Nyssa woke up the next morning she was alone, which was unusual.

 

However, Nyssa didn’t think too much on it at first. Perhaps Sara had woken up in the middle of the night and hadn’t been able to fall back asleep so she decided to start training early instead. It had happened a couple of times in the past. So the eldest daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul went about checking all of her lover’s usual haunts. She wasn’t in one of the open training courts, she wasn’t in Nyssa’s personal dojo, and she wasn’t even situated in the gardens, which was where Sara went to meditate during difficult times. Nyssa didn’t report it to her father immediately. Even thinking about abandoning the league was a terrible offense and the Head of the Demon was not a forgiving man. Nyssa was sure Sara was somewhere in the compound. She had to be some place, Nyssa would just have to have the patience to seek her out.

 

The day went by in a blur of trainings and planning sessions for a hit on one of her father’s newest targets. By the time the sun had begun to set, Sara was still nowhere to be found and no one had seen her. Only after returning to their shared bedchamber and finding nearly all of Sara’s meager belongings missing did Nyssa finally go to her father.

 

Not surprisingly, Talia was the first one to speak up after Nyssa had explained the situation.

 

“I knew this would happen. I’ve always had a bad feeling about your little bird,” Talia fumed. “We should’ve never allowed her into Nanda Parbat in the first place.”

 

Talia had never been a fan of Sara. She’d been wary of her from the beginning and her growing animosity towards the blonde had been in part due to her experiences with Bruce Wayne when their father was training him and his subsequent flight from the League afterwards. She didn’t believe in trusting outsiders because you could give them everything and they could turn right around and break your heart and this time—Nyssa found, still reeling from the shock—Talia wasn’t wrong.

 

Nyssa just sat there as her sister clamored for Sara’s blood. A part of her argued that she should be coming to her lover’s defense. Nyssa loved Sara and in the past she would have defended her from Talia no matter what the cost, but another larger part of Nyssa’s consciousness couldn’t bring itself to respond at all. There was this overwhelming sense of numbness interlaced with cold fear that made her feel as if someone had shoved a giant icicle into her chest cavity and instead of melting it continued to grow in size. Talia—for her part—took one look at Nyssa just sitting on the steps leading up to the dais where their father sat in his chair and knew that her sister was too heartbroken to be of any constructive use at all.

 

“Papa,” Talia pleaded, “give me leave to hunt her down. I will make sure that blonde rat knows how heavy the price of betrayal is.”

 

Their father finally interceded after a few minutes of quiet contemplation. He was a staunch man made even more harsh and ruthless with the ravages and tragedies of time and he had even less patience for trivial matters of the heart. He didn’t have to tell Nyssa that giving her heart to that blonde whore was a mistake, she already knew, could already feel his disapproval radiating off of him in spades.

 

“We have more pressing matters that require your attention at the moment, Talia. Rest assured, Ta-er-al-as-fer will get what is coming to her. No one slights one of the daughters of Ra’s Al Ghul without consequences.”

 

Nyssa swallowed, her throat feeling like sand paper. She wasn’t an emotional person and never had been. When her mother had been murdered in front of her in Moscow that had been the last time she had cried and she wasn’t about to shed a tear now in front of her father. He would take one look at the sobbing, shaking mass that she had become and he would disown her in favor of Talia or even their dishonored brother. Nyssa had never doubted that her father loved her, but she had also never doubted that Sara loved her and look where that had gotten her?

 

She felt the cool rush of air as the doors to the main chamber were pushed open and someone else came in. For an instant, an irrational spark of hope lit in Nyssa’s chest and she prayed to anyone who would listen that Sara had been found; that she was really here somewhere and Nyssa just hadn’t looked hard enough, but that hope died almost as quickly as it had been born as she realized that the newcomer was in fact Al-Owal and not her little yellow bird returning to her. Talia exhaled a short, harsh breath at the appearance of the man and Nyssa slumped down uncharacteristically into the steps behind her.

 

The stern man was one her father’s oldest retainers. He had been born into the League and by his own admission he would die under the League just as anyone who had sworn an oath to Ra’s Al Ghul was bound to and he was also a hunter. He often took on the jobs that their father wanted to make sure were done without margin for error. Nyssa looked up and noticed the stern man, his feet planted shoulder’s width apart, arms folded behind his back as he appraised his surroundings. No doubt he felt the tension in the room. No doubt he felt Talia’s unchecked rage and Nyssa’s overwhelming heartache, but he said nothing. Simply waited for his master’s orders.

 

Nyssa listened as her father handed over the task of finding Sara to Al-Owal. Listened as he dictated the terms of her surrender, if she surrendered, but Nyssa couldn't bring herself to care. It was still all too new. Still all to unbelievable. The Sara she knew and loved would have never left her in the middle of the night. The Sara she knew and loved would never have betrayed them like she did. It needed to all be some sort of nightmare and she needed to wake up soon. She had to because for all of her skills, Nyssa wasn’t sure she would be able to live in constant pain like this without Sara at her side.


End file.
